Coffee Tips & Teazers By Don McKay

It is said that change is good, but not for everyone. I like my coffee fresh, hot, and black. Many people are sick of the same old routine, and want to try something different. I want to introduce you to my Coffee Tips & TEAzers. These are a few tips and recipes given to me by various people over the years. I hope you are able to enjoy them as much as I have.

Coffee Tip #1

The only thing that beats a hot cup of coffee in the morning is a FRESH cup of hot coffee. The only way to guarantee fresh Coffee & Tea every time is to vacuum pack your beans, grounds, tea bags, or loose-leaf teas. This prevents the air from making your coffee and teas stale. It will keep your coffee & teas fresher longer.

Coffee Tip #2

If you are board with the traditional way coffee is presented then I have some ideas that will give your coffee some pizzazz. Try flavored syrups there are many different flavors to choose from and you can combine the flavors to make something unique. Try adding some chocolate syrup to your coffee. Then add a splash of half & half creamer. Stir completely until your coffee is a tan color. Then add whip cream and chocolate sprinkles. Presto! You have a hot cup of chocolate mocha!

Coffee Tip #3

This is a unique recipe Cafe Speciale

· 4 teaspoons chocolate syrup
· 1/2 cup heavy cream
· 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
· 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
· 1 tablespoon sugar
· 1-1/2 cups extra-strength hot coffee

Put 1 teaspoon chocolate syrup into each of 4 small cups. Combine cream. 1/4-teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar. Whip. Stir remaining 1/2-teaspoon cinnamon into hot coffee. Pour coffee into cups. Stir to blend with syrup. Top with whipped cream. Makes 4 servings.

TEAser#1
The problem with tea bags is that you really don't know how fresh the tea is. With loose-leaf teas you can feel the texture and see the tea more clearly. The smell alone can be deceiving. Some companies have been known to spray their teas with scents that make them smell fresh, but are they really?

TEAser#2
Mango Tea (By The Pitcher)
Fill Pitcher with Ice
Add 5 oz. Monin Mango Tea
Fill with 50 oz. Water
Stir Well

Raspberry Tea (By The Glass)
Fill 12 oz. Glass with Ice
Add 1 oz. Monin Raspberry Tea
Top off with 10 oz. Water
Stir Well

Minted Mango Tea
1 cup chopped refrigerated mango slices
1-cup pineapple juice
8 green tea bags
2 4-inch mint sprigs
4 cups boiling water
1 to 2 tablespoons sugar
Ice cubes

Directions

1. In a medium saucepan bring water to boiling. Add tea bags, anise, and cinnamon stick. Reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, for 3 to 5 minutes. Discard tea bags and cinnamon stick. Stir in nectar, honey, and lemon juice. Heat through.

2. Pour tea mixture into four heatproof cups, floating a star anise on top of each. Makes 4 servings.

Don is the owner of several free information websites and the sole proprietor of Java Jakes Gourmet Coffee Co.

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Starbucks Coffee Company By Gary Gresham

Starbucks Coffee Company was founded in 1971 by three businessmen in Seattle, Washington who had a love for coffee and tea. It was important to them that the city of Seattle to have access their coffee.

The Starbucks Coffee Company grew slowly but by 1981 had 4 retail stores and a roasting plant that sold whole bean coffee in Seattle only.

By 1983 the marketing manager had a vision of re-creating the magic and romance behind the Italian coffee bar and wanted to test out the concept of selling espresso by the cup. When Starbucks Coffee opened its 6th store in downtown Seattle, the idea had become a hit. Within 2 months the new store was serving over 700 customers a day and it was selling 3 times more than the whole bean locations.

In 1987, the owners of Starbucks Coffee Company decided to sell their coffee business along with the name to a group of local investors for $3.7 million.

The new investors were told that they would open 125 Starbucks coffee stores in the next five years. Starting from a base of 17 stores in 1987, the company expanded rapidly to Vancouver, Portland and Chicago.

By 1991 Starbucks had expanded into the mail-order catalogue business, licensed airport stores and expanded further into the state of California.

In 1992 the company went public and after the initial public offering, Starbucks continued to grow at a phenomenal pace that no one had ever seen in the coffee world before. By 1997 the number of Starbucks Coffee stores grew tenfold, with locations in the US, Japan and Singapore.

Starbucks initiated several successful product and brand extensions including offering coffee on United Airlines flights. They also began selling premium teas through its Tazo Tea Company and offering people the option to purchase starbucks coffee online to enjoy at home.

They began distributing whole bean and ground coffee to supermarkets through an agreement with Kraft Foods. They also produced premium coffee ice cream with Dreyers. Starbucks even sold CDs in its retail stores.

Starbucks began turning its name into a household word not through advertising but through word of mouth. In fiscal 2004, Starbucks opened a record 1,344 stores worldwide. The once small regional roaster, Starbucks Coffee Company, now has more than 9,000 locations in 34 countries serving over 20 million customers a week.

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Coffee - It Isn't All Bad! By Steve Giddings

The debate has raged for many years, and it will probably continue for years... is coffee good or bad for your health? While the jury may be out, here are some findings that indicate coffee is not all bad.

Coffee, as we all know, is high in caffeine, and caffeine is suspected of increasing blood pressure and heart rate. The medical fraternity have long suspected that coffee drinking might therefore contribute to higher rates of heart disease. However a recent study by researchers at the Harvard University School of Public Health found no significant increase in the risk of heart disease or stroke among men who drank up to four cups of coffee a day – a finding supported by the Kaiser Permanente health care organization in California.

The same outcome was found in women where data collected from more than 85,000 women over a 10-year period produced no evidence for any positive association between coffee consumption and risk of heart disease for women consuming six or more cups of coffee a day. That’s a lot of coffee!

This is not to say that there aren't physical effects to coffee drinking. Caffeine does excite brain cells, and this in turn improves concentration and reaction time and reduces fatigue. In fact, caffeine can increase the speed of rapid information processing by 10%. A study in 1993 clearly demonstrated that caffeinated coffee had a beneficial effect on alertness and improved performance in a variety of tasks. Caffeine also has a beneficial effect on asthma by reducing the severity of attacks. Two studies found that three or more cups of coffee a day reduced the prevalence of asthma and this is further supported by improved ventilatory function in exercise-induced broncho-constriction - although this required over five cups of coffee a day!

Interestingly, it has been found that increased activity, alertness and efficiency are associated with a decline in levels of depression and anxiety. Two independent studies noted a significant inverse association between coffee drinking and the risk of suicide. Further research into the possibility that coffee drinking may decrease depression is certainly needed.

Although, caffeine is often singled out as the chemical in coffee that has the most impact on our health, coffee has a complex chemical composition. One beneficial characteristic of coffee is that it contains compounds with antioxidant properties. Polyphenolic compounds known as flavonoids are common in plants and are known to have disease suppression benefits. What is most interesting is that the roasting process increases antioxidant activity in the beans. Although the beneficial role of food antioxidants is a relatively new research area, this is likely to become more important in years to come.

Yet too much caffeine can lead to irritability and restlessness along with an increase in urination. Talking of this, kidney stones are extremely painful and in a study of some 45,000 men with no history of kidney stones it was found that increased consumption of regular and decaffeinated coffee, tea, beer and wine were linked with a decreased risk of stone formation. The same effect was found in a study involving 81,000 women where caffeinated coffee and wine were found to be significantly more effective than water in helping women avoid kidney stones.

Coffee also has several metabolic effects that could reduce the risk of gallstone formation. According to a study conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), drinking coffee is associated with a 40 percent lower risk of gallstone disease in men. Men who drank four or more cups of regular coffee per day had a 45 percent lower risk profile.

The link between coffee and cancer is probably more weighted in favour of coffee. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, with some 131,000 Americans being diagnosed with cancers of the rectum and colon on an annual basis. Now there is some convincing evidence for a protective effect of coffee against the development of colon cancers. A recent review of over 15 studies on coffee consumption and colorectal cancer from 1960 to 1990 found the risk of colorectal cancer to be 24% lower among those who drink four or more cups of coffee per day, than among those who rarely or never drink coffee. Researchers in Sweden also found that "…coffee consumption appears to be protective against colon cancer, and tea against rectal tumors". The most likely explanation for lower risk of colorectal cancer among heavy coffee consumers is the enhanced colonic activity induced by coffee, and the inhibition effect on the cancer-causing effects of various micro-organisms by anti-mutagenic components in coffee and caffeine.

Coffee is also commonly used to “lift” hangovers and to get going “the morning after”. However it might be more useful to drink it before having the party…as in the past decade, research in the United States, Japan and Italy has shown that the consumption of coffee has a strong protective effect against cirrhosis of the liver. Drinking 3 to 4 cups of coffee a day was associated with an 80% reduction in risk for cirrhosis of the liver, compared with those who don't drink coffee at all.

On the subject of losing brain cells, Parkinson ’s disease, a progressive nervous disease occurring generally after age 50, destroys brain cells that produce dopamine and is characterized by muscular tremor, slowing of movement, weakness and facial paralysis. Research into the relationship between caffeine consumption from a variety of sources and the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, has shown that moderate consumption of caffeine reduces the risk of Parkinson’s disease in men and women.

In fact, men who drank four to five cups per day of caffeinated coffee cut the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease nearly in half compared to men in the study who consumed little or no caffeine daily. Women who consumed between one and three cups of caffeinated coffee per day also cut their risk nearly in half of developing Parkinson’s disease when compared to women who drank less than a cup of coffee per day - but this apparent benefit was lost at higher levels of intake.

Finally, while some people believe that coffee can induce acid reflux, recent research has found that coffee consumption has no effect whatever at inducing heartburn in healthy people. Even for those individuals with gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, coffee consumption was found to have only a minimal effect.

Is coffee all that bad? Probably not...in moderation. Indeed, many studies identifying beneficial effects also noted the loss of these effects at high consumption rates. So, enjoy your three to four cups of coffee a day...on average you’ll be just fine!

Steve Giddings is Managing Director of Frontier Beverage Corporation (Pty) Ltd. This article and other coffee related information can be found at http://www.frontiercoffee.co.za

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How To Select A Single Serve Coffee Maker

An increasing number of us nowadays are wondering how to select a single serve coffee maker that will suit us best at home. These kinds of coffeemaker are designed to produce – as you might expect – a single cup of coffee at a time and they are becoming increasingly popular amongst all kinds of coffee drinkers.

In the past we’ve been a bit limited in our choices of coffee maker – we’ve often, for example, had to make a whole pot of fresh coffee just to enjoy a single cup but things are different nowadays.

The Advantages

The advantages of single serve coffee stations are primarily found in the fact that they can make just one serving of coffee at a time and that they work real quick as a consequence in comparison to multi serve machines. So, you won’t need to waste coffee or won’t need to make more coffee than you’ll actually drink in one sitting.

And, if you choose one of the new single serve pod systems as your final choice here, then you can simply slip a small individual coffee pod into the machine, make your cup of coffee and then throw the pod away. So, there’ll minimal cleaning up and maintenance to do as well!

You can even pick and choose the kinds of coffee you want to drink with these kinds of machines as the pods can come in various types, roasts and flavors. Major coffee companies that make coffee for these pods currently include some big names in the sector such as Douwe Egberts, Melitta and Folgers – so you’ll get a guarantee of coffee experience and quality at the same time as well.

Two Types

There are basically two ways to use a single serve coffee maker. In the first instance you can buy a conventional coffee machine that uses standard ground coffee via a normal filter system but which only brews a single cup of coffee at a time rather than making up a whole big pot. It is worth noting here that some of these machines may sometimes be able to brew up two cups instead of just one which could give you a little more flexibility.
In either case the machine here will brew up directly into your cup extremely quickly and efficiently. Some of these kinds of models even come with their own mug when you buy them!

As single serve machines go this kind of option is reliable but kind of uninspiring if you’re looking for something a little different in your coffee drinking. But, if you’re still wondering how to select a single serve coffee maker then this may be a good option for you if you simply want an affordable and compact coffee maker for one/two people. Some of these machines are real tiny nowadays and could easily just sit on the end of a desk for real ease of use without taking up too much space.

But, if you want something a little bit more exciting from a single serve coffee maker then you really should also consider something along the lines of one of these new pod systems we’ve already mentioned. These single serve machines (such as those in the Philips Senseo range, for example) are designed to take a single pod that contains a specific brand, roast or type of coffee at a time.

You unwrap the pod from its packaging, place it in the machine and it brews your coffee up for you into the cup. You can then simply throw the used pod into the trash. Again it’s worth noting that some pod systems can be purchased that will make two cups of coffee at a time.

Variety - The Spice of Life

These machines are so popular now partly because they are so convenient and reliable but also because they allow you to buy different varieties, types and flavors of coffee pods. So, you can pick and choose which kind of coffee you will brew at any given time of day without having to keep a huge stock of different types of coffee in your kitchen cupboards.

This does prevent you from having lots of large unopened bags of coffee going stale in your cupboards because you simply cannot drink them that fast. These pods are also all individually sealed so you won’t lose freshness as you may do once you open a bag of standard ground coffee.

One complaint that some pod machine users have is that the pods themselves are not always as cost effective as they may be. As you might expect you may have to pay a premium for convenience here so this kind of pod system may well work out to be more expensive to both buy the initial machine and the pods than if you were just buying a small single serve maker and regular bags of coffee.

One key thing to think about as you ponder how to select a single serve coffee maker is compatibility. Some pods can be used in other kinds of standard coffee makers so it’s worth while checking on compatibility with your manufacturer. And, some coffee pod systems offer the ability to add a normal filter to the machine so you can use them as a standard single serve machine with your own ground coffee.

Flexibility is vital here as you don’t want to buy a coffee maker or a pod system that limits your choices. Some pod systems, for example, will allow you to use other types of pods in the machine as well as those that are made for the particular model. This option is great as you get much more flexibility in terms of coffee drinking choice. However, some systems will only work with their own pods which could see you limited on choice and which could also cost you more in the long run.

It doesn’t really matter which system you decide suits you best at the end of the day. You may even opt for both choices! One last thing to remember is that you can get great discounts and bargains on standard single serve coffee makers, pod systems and the pods themselves if you shop around. Many pod system users, for example, shop around on the Internet and then bulk buy pods when they find a bargain.

Carol Finch enjoys writing about coffee makers, beans, and more at Coffee N' Beans: www.coffee-n-beans.com

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Simple Gourmet Coffee

There are a number of countries that produce coffee and new regions are converting their crops to the mighty bean as our demand for different tasting coffee increases. We are also adding more exotic flavourings to our coffee. It comes as no surprise that the number of coffee shops and stores that sell coffee beans and all the associated paraphernalia to be able to make our own perfect coffee at home.

Coffee houses are a great place for us to go and relax with friends and family over an expertly made cup of coffee. We often ignore how much effort has been put into our drink by the coffee maker that roasts the beans, grinds them up and then uses the exact quantity required to brew a satisfying cup of coffee for us. There are a number of techniques involved in making a cup of coffee and a lot of us are happy to leave someone else to make it for us. The equipment used is only part of the story; you also need to practice with various quantities of coffee and water until it reaches your optimum strength.

We are almost overwhelmed by the huge variety of types of coffee that are available. Not only does the coffee taste different depending on the country and region that the beans were grown in but also from year to year. This is due to the changes in weather from one coffee growing season to another.

If you go to a specialist coffee shop you are likely to be confronted with a huge selection of flavourings that you can add to your coffee to make it even more to your liking.

The strength and bitterness of the coffee can be adjusted by using different quantities of water and coffee, adding sweeteners and milk as well as adding milk. One tip for lowering the bitterness level is to never use boiling water as this scalds the coffee and gives it a bitter taste. Always use water that is just below boiling temperature when making your coffee.

Everyone has their own opinion about what makes the perfect cup of coffee but you will find your own technique through trial and error.

D. Goldberg is editor of The Gourmet Blog. The Gourmet Blog offers gourmet food recipes, gourmet gift ideas and other gourmet tips.

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